Crazy Flight

aerial photo of Mission Bay

I made a quick trip out to San Diego this weekend for an old buddy’s wedding. Being springtime there, everything was green and vibrant and flowering, and my last day there was a gorgeous crystal clear day that made my heart ache for my hometown. I don’t have any photos to show for it, except this snapshot of Mission Beach and Mission Bay from the airplane window.

lightning and airplane wing

The weather in Colorado, on the other hand, was up to its usual antics. After being held in a holding pattern over the Front Range for a half hour, we finally started our descent into Denver right under the roof of a dark, ominous thunderhead. As we approached the airport the plane was getting tossed around so badly that the pilot gunned it out of there and we flew another holding pattern for about an hour, circling around the thunderhead and watching the purple lightning bolts flashing through the cloud and zapping the runway. No bueno. My photos unfortunately do not do justice to the scene, but regardless, this is something you normally don’t want to be seeing out of an airplane window.

dia Crazy

The thunderhead finally moved away from the runway just far enough for the pilot to make a successful landing, but once we were safely on the runway the entire airport spontaneously combusted into flames – or was that just the trippy refractions of light in raindrops? Perhaps the latter. We then had to wait for another half hour on the runway since the entire ground crew staff had been ordered inside due to the lightning danger, and when we finally got into the airport it was a frantic mess of delayed flights and people running for their connections. Good fun!

I finally made it back to the Montrose airport at 1:30am, only to be almost immediately pulled over and ticketed for doing 50 in a 30 mph zone. Sweet! I swear it was 45 in a 35, but what can you do?

And next on tap: a roadtrip to the Northwest tomorrow for 10 days to hopefully snowboard down some volcanos! My recent life philosophy in tough economic times: when work is slow, play fast! (But don’t drive too fast!) I have a laptop now so perhaps I’ll post some pics during the trip.

In other news, I just realized (after two months) that in addition to the article that Cowboys & Indians magazine published about me and my photography in their March 2010 issue, they also published a web-exclusive interview on their website. Check it out: Jack Brauer: behind the lens.

4 thoughts on “Crazy Flight

  1. Jack, Montrose is famous for their bad cops, it’s how they generate revenue, and they’ve stepped everything up now that the economy is sinking.

    Have fun up in the Ring of Fire. Be sure you board the right direction down those calderas. 🙂

  2. Easy there, Jack – “beachphotographer.com” just doesn’t seem right for you. That middle of the night ticket is some bullsh*t, eh?! I recently got one of those near CB on a Sunday night, no one around for miles…

    Have a blast in the PNW!

  3. GORGEOUS photo of Mission Bay, and yes, we had gorgeous weather last week…but this week is May Gray. So…come and visit anytime – your hometown isn’t leaving anytime soon – it will wait for you to return, or visit!

  4. Hi Jack…welcome back…looks like I missed a lot of posts. WHAT A CRAZY TRIP!! And a traffic ticket at the end!! I heard about Montrose cops before too. I am glad you are safe after all that drama. You took advantage of that trip though.. I really like the photographs… abstract feel to the last two photos.

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